Better late than never!

19/09/16

With our final day of ringing looming on our Pasvik project for this year, the team were looking to make the most of our last day. An early start was needed to make the most of the day and we continued ringing at our Nyrud site until just shy of midday.

As we have come to expect from the slowly diminishing returns at this site as migrants leave the area, the day totals remained fairly low, however we were happy to catch a good mix of species, with no obvious ‘prominent’ species. Reed Buntings and Great Tits made up the bulk of the catch, unsurprisingly, however it was a very happy moment to finally find 3 Redpolls sitting in the net. A long overdue addition to the trip list, considering how many were caught by the other team at Nesserby earlier in the autumn (and how many were present on our trip up there a couple of days previously!). Better late than never. A male Brambling added a dose of colour to the day list however the probable highlight was the trapping of a 3^rd control Russian Great Tit! Again an adult male, and again from the same ring sequence as the previous 2 the day before! Interesting stuff!

 Totals for Nyrud on our final day are below.

Reed Bunting	8
Great Tit	6 +1
Common Redpoll	3
Willow Tit	2
Dunnock	1
Brambling	1
Totals	21 +1

Vaggetem

As has become the norm, once returning from Nyrud, we arrived back at our cabins and the feeder net was opened, and today it proved far more productive than our ringing in the morning, with good numbers of Great Tit and Greenfinch caught among the hoards now visiting the feeders. A fine male House Sparrow was the only one caught from a flock of around 15.

Great Tit	13
Greenfinch	9
Willow Tit	2+1
House Sparrow	1
Totals	25+1

2 immature Red-Crested Pochard proved to be the highlight from our birding during the day, floating around on the river north of Vaggetem. A very unusual sighting within the arctic circle for this usually southern and eastern species, apparently the first record since 2005! Following one distant individual Moose swimming across the river earlier in the trip, it was great to see a pair feeding in a field close to the road on the drive to Nyrud this morning. Their huge size simply defies belief when you see them up close, phenomenal animals! We have been finding tracks and scat very commonly every day spread widely across Pasvik, so despite their size they are obviously very shy!  2 White tailed Eagles flew along the river at Nyrud this morning, giving some great views. They are much more common on the Varangerfjord and these 2 were only the 3^rd and 4^th seen during our 12 days in Pasvik.